


Azaleas are Red, Monkshood are Blue

by calenlily



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Hymn to Demeter - Homer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23010205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calenlily/pseuds/calenlily
Summary: Before the entrance to the palace of Hades, there is a garden.
Relationships: Hades/Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26
Collections: Writing Rainbow Red





	Azaleas are Red, Monkshood are Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ruis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruis/gifts).



Before the entrance to the palace of Hades, there is a garden, the Queen’s private sanctuary. It started small, a patch of narcissus amongst the asphodel in the first year of her residence, as she experimented with the use of her powers in her new home and ventured to recreate the blossom that had lured her to her fate. But with each passing winter, the garden expanded, growing lush and diverse.

Under summer’s sun, Persephone spends her days tending fields of wheat and barley at her mother’s side, focusing her time and attention on the crops that keep nations fed. But in the quiet of the Underworld, on days when she is not needed to sit in judgement and no other duty calls her, she revels in the luxury to spend long hours experimenting.

And at the end of a long and wearying day, she calls her lord to sit with her in the garden, and distracts him for a time from the burdens of responsibility by showing him the results of her creativity. This blossom with fiery petals splayed wide upon a nodding stalk is flame lily, and this shyly hooded violet bloom is aconite. Foxglove, hyacinth, and delphinium display tightly clustered flowers upon tall stalks in varied blues and purples. Vines bearing ephemeral bells twine up the iron bars of the gates, vibrantly colored morning glory opening as white moonflower closes.

When spring comes again, Persephone will bring her new creations to the sunlit fields and dappled meadows of the world above. The goddess of flowers brings brightness and beauty wherever she goes - and doom to the unwary, for each of her creations is deadly poison. For all that she spends half her life away from her realm, she is ever and always the Iron Queen, and she has her ways of sending presents to death.


End file.
